Few questions from a returning player

[Airlick]

Where do I begin...

Alright, so I played WoW since early TBC, and quit a few months into Cataclysm. I came back for ~3 months during SoO, but couldn't really find a decent raiding guild (since I got rid of my old account, I had nothing to show for as far as experience goes) in time to start doing heroic 25s, and so I quit again.

Now I thought it would be the best time to try again, since WoD just came out and raids are not even open yet.

I mained Shaman for the longest time, achieving ~2400 rating in all brackets late into WotLK, also clearing all raids up to 25 HC LK.

But for now I'm looking mostly at Warrior and DK. Warrior was my favourite alt and I was doing pretty great on it. Loved stance dancing (even though it was starting to get more and more obsolete, with Shield Reflect being allowed out of Def Stance and so on), loved its mobility, loved the general feel of the class.

This is where the questions begin:

- which would you rather pick as your tank? I think I'll try to stick with DPS for raids, but I'm sure I'll end up having a tank spec
- how are those 2 faring in arenas and BGs? I know I'll spend a lot of time PvPing, and I don't want to feel gimped

- does Warrior feel mostly like it used to 4 years ago?
- is it still as mechanically challenging as it used to be? Aside of hunters, I guess, no class required so many macros and had so many situational skills, and I loved that
- is it still as mobile as it used to be?
- is it currently strong? Not OP-strong, but I don't want to get gimped by my class - I had my share of feeling like dead weight while playing Shaman during WotLK.


Now, as for DK. I hated the constant need for refreshing DoTs as DK and I don't like pets, these things always made me abandon the class, though I did level it to the cap eventually. There were good things about DK, though, particularly their soloing capability. So:

- is it as reliant on DotS as it used to be? How about the pets?
- is it still as good for soloing?
- did it get any more mobile, or does it still rely on CC and sustain rather than mobility?

I think that's it with the questions for now... I hope it's the right forum for such topics.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

1. Warrior. Because as a prot warrior, your actually getting three different specs with the gladiator talent. If your tanking, switch to defensive stance and get 5% additional armor mitigation. If you wanna go DPS just switch to Glad stance, and you don't have to relearn rotations.

2. Gladiator warriors are dominating PvP

3. Arms and fury definitely do.

4. Glad and fury warriors require skill in juggling CDs and procing abilities. Get complicated with glad stance when you have procing abilities that can proc even other abilities.

5. Nothing's changed.

6. Gladiator warriors have top DPS so far if you pay attention to the ingame guide on how to play it.

[Stormspark]

As far as warriors, no they are nothing like they were in vanilla/BC. All tanks focus on active mitigation now, and there are far fewer "mechanically challenging" abilities. As far as tanks, they are all relatively equal. They work in different ways, but any tank that is well played is going to be able to handle any current content without an issue. That said, warriors are probably the most mobile tank, although brewmaster monk is pretty close to them.

As far as soloing...well blood DK's are the gods of soloing and probably always will be. They are absolutely insane, and throughout Cata and MOP were soloing *current* content. Mione soloed normal Garrosh at level 90 before WOD launched.

[arden714]

I haven't had time for any PvP yet, but....

DPS specs aren't anything like they were before Cata. They are even entirely foreign to what I played in MoP. Arms is super boring yet puts out good numbers. We are still very viable tanks and very very mobile as always.

Tanking now hinges more on using CDs throughout an encounter than in burst situations.

Another bonus to prot spec is it is a very viable DPS spec that is a lot of fun thanks to gladiator stance and how they optimize gear stats. You can be top tank and top DPS in the same gear simply by changing stances.

Zerker stance and stance dancing is a thing of the past. The class is a bit more simple, less clutter abilities, more stream lined but still isn't face roll. A good warrior shines and a poorly played one is noticeable.

I'm just rambling, long time warrior here, played since late vanilla every expac. I haven't had this much fun in years, and while everyone has their own opinion, a lot of old school players are enjoying this way more than Mop or Cata

[willtron]

1. Warrior. Because as a prot warrior, your actually getting three different specs with the gladiator talent. If your tanking, switch to defensive stance and get 5% additional armor mitigation. If you wanna go DPS just switch to Glad stance, and you don't have to relearn rotations.

2. Gladiator warriors are dominating PvP

3. Arms and fury definitely do.

4. Glad and fury warriors require skill in juggling CDs and procing abilities. Get complicated with glad stance when you have procing abilities that can proc even other abilities.

5. Nothing's changed.

6. Gladiator warriors have top DPS so far if you pay attention to the ingame guide on how to play it.

I'd say:

2. I wouldn't say so, Hunters always seem to be topping pretty much all relevant categories in BGs. Arena they have survivability but not much else, and the sort of miscellaneous world PvP, they above average, but not top.

6. Not at all, especially post nerf, they're pretty competitive single target, AoE is weak. They aren't top DPS.

[Airlick]

Damn, I'm still torn.

Thanks for the answers, though, definitely shed some light on the classes.